House of Horrors

Don't judge me. I brought you two new 2 Ball updates and yes, we're nearly done and that's on my mind, but BUT...it's October. And...I don't think I've done anything Halloweeny since I've been on the site. I did want to start Season 2, but I didn't have a Halloween episode (I have since added one), but then...inspiration.

So, long story short, I played the demo for Resident Evil 7 on this past Sunday and it terrified me. I've also since learned that I only experienced ONE ending. Delightful! Anyway...it was too good to resist, so...here's your scary story for October 2016! AND...it's gonna be a yearly series, like Treehouse of Horror. At least I hope so. We'll see. Anyway...here we go!

Oh! Before I forget: Hey kids! This is a scary story based on a scary video game that is not at all marketed to children. So scary imagery and bumps in the night here. Reading discretion is advised.

October 15th, 2016 11:25PM

Location: Redison Farmhouse

Inside

M00f615 tx-52

“KITCHEN”

Found within same house as seen in footage

00 : 00 : 07 : 25​

The video tape began at the 7 minute and 25 second mark, however actual video didn’t come onscreen until about five minutes later. Despite the current times, the video was in black and white, but the scene seemed clear enough. As the title stated, filming seemed to have taken place within the kitchen, a dilapidated room, seemingly left to rot until the intrusion of the lone frog who was moving slowly on the floor.

The body groaned, as though in pain, as it moved from its back to its side. Raising its hands to its face, the discovery of rope wrapped around its wrists seemed to startle it into a more wakeful state. “What?” it muttered, revealing the scratchy voice to belong to a male frog, highly confused and obviously suffering from whatever had laid him out on the blood-soaked floor.

Another groan caused the frog to look up at the camera or rather, at the person who was possibly recording the video. It was clear however that the frog knew the camera person, as he uttered an “Oh no” when he saw them. Whoever was controlling the camera seemed to be coming to, just as the frog had. As the camera person moved, so did the second person in the room, causing the frog to try to get up from the floor.

The video skipped a section. Now, the frog was rushing over to the second person. “You alright?” he asked. The camera moved up and down, once, then twice, signaling that the second person was coming around and seemed to be fine. However, upon raising their hands, they were in the same predicament as the frog – rope was wrapped around their wrists.

Again, the video skipped and moved on to the frog looking around the floor until he dropped to his knees, sliding slightly through a pool of blood. Making a disgusted sound, he turned back towards the second person, this time a butcher knife held in his left hand. “We gotta get outta here,” he panted, trying his best to cut the rope around his companion’s wrists.

However, the knife wasn’t cutting and the rope wasn’t budging.

Muppet Horror Story presents:

House of Horrors​

Pain.

Confusion.

If I had to give a name to what I was feeling at the moment, it was those two things. Thankfully, the pain seems to be receding as I open my eyes, but that only gives way to confusion. Where was I? And how did I get here?

Where I was looks to be a room and I have apparently just woken up on the floor, seemingly between a rust colored leather arm chair and a small coffee table. I sit up on my knees. I’m in complete darkness.

No. Wait. That wasn’t true; there was a sliver of light coming from…me, as though I’m holding a flashlight, but I’m not. My hands are completely free.

Instinct takes over, as I pat myself down, checking for any type of injury and thankfully finding none. However, I do find the source of light – it is coming from me, or rather a small headlamp that I have wrapped around my forehead. That’ll be useful. Still on my knees, I move my head slowly to gather my surroundings. I’m in a…sitting room or a den. There’s a second leather chair further away and on the table, there’s two cups and a kettle. Was I in here earlier drinking tea?

A broken cell phone in the middle of the table catches my eye. Is it mine? If so, it’ll be no help to me. For some reason, I grimace in pain. This was an expensive phone and I can just feel a bill coming to me from my boss.

Near the cups is a note. Perhaps my host left it for me, which would be helpful. I’d like to know where I was and how I got here, everything is so fuzzy and I’m having a desperate time trying to remember. Reaching out, I pick up the note and read it.

I will slay them all​

What. The. What.

I’m not going to even bother to figure what this hot mess could possibly mean because I’m getting out of here. Using the table, I get to my feet and stagger slightly as the room sways for a second. I’m starting to get a picture here and it’s not something I like – I’ve been drugged. Obviously. One of those cups must have been mine. That’s problem number one. Problems number two through a hundred are all going to be centered on why the heck I’ve been drugged, what the heck I’m doing here, who the heck the host was, why the heck he or she is trying to kill me, and so on and so on.

Back to my initial ‘I’m getting out of dodge’ idea, I start slowly looking around. There’s a TV in the back-right corner behind and it’s on, showing nothing but static. There’s no sound, so it must be on mute. Had we been watching TV? Walking slowly to it, I see it’s connected to a VCR. In this moment, when most of my thoughts are focused on getting out of here, a sudden thought of why a person would have a VCR in this day and age hits me. It was all about the streaming now, though some people still had Blu-ray and DVD players.

Actually, I guess it’s not so weird. I still have my old VCR, not that I use it. I’ve gotten into streaming. I’m hip! I’m with it!

Thinking that whatever we watched had reached its end, I hit the eject button, but nothing happens. Lifting the lid, I can see why. There’s no tape in here. Okay. Dead end. Ugh, why did I have to say dead? I take a step and start turning to the left. Wherever I was, this was not a modern home. Not because of the VCR, mind, but because of the peeling wallpaper and dust covered walls. Turning to the left, I walk towards an old empty bookcase that’s up against the wall next to a burnt-out fireplace.

There’re no books, just one picture of a flower and two metal containers. I hate to rifle through someone else’s belongings, but I’m trying to escape and maybe there’s something important inside. I try to pick the first one up, but find it’s immoveable and so is the second one, like they’re glued to the bookcase. Okay. Turning again to the left again, I scan the mantel of the fireplace, but nothing catches my eye.

Well, almost nothing. There was a picture on the wall of a middle-aged couple, happy and smiling. I don’t know who they are, but wondering if one or both had been my host. But if so, why would they want to drug me? Nice middle-aged couples don’t drug people. Usually. Most of the time. Looking and turning, I examine the room to the best of my abilities; across from me, on the other side of the room was an upright piano, but it was the fuse box next to it that held my attention.

Quickly hurrying towards, my happiness is soon dashed. Out of four fuses, only three are still inside. Taking another turn around the room, I come to a disappointing conclusion – I need to leave the room. And that terrifies me. So far, I’ve been relatively safe in this room, but who knows what kind of trouble I’ll encounter if I leave. Taking a deep breath, I take a few steps towards the door.

As I take a few steps, my feet feel heavy on the floor and I immediately stop. Was that me? Or someone outside the door? I don’t hear anything else so I quietly go to the door and open it. Looking both ways, I hold my breath in case something will happen, but nothing does. It seems my room isn’t the only dark part of the home – the hallway was dark too, with only my headlamp broadcasting a small circle of light in which to lead me.

Stepping out into the hallway, I look left, then right. To my right is another door; to my left is the continuation of the hallway, ending at a boarded-up window. A broken cabinet has been thrown down in front of it, splintering out in the case. Left seems to be the way to go, so that’s where I head, passing by a small end table as I go. There’s a single lamp sitting on it, its light reflecting in the hazy mirror above it and casting my shadow against the aging staircase.

I won’t lie. I jumped a little at seeing it before I realized it was just my shadow. This feels like the start of a horror movie. Not sure why I’m thinking that, but I am. Here I am, in an abandoned house, possibly drugged by the caretakers, who seemed to have disappeared and there are no lights because…I don’t know and don’t care. I have renewed my efforts to just leave.

The hallway table has two drawers, but only one opens. There’s a mannequin’s finger inside and I immediately close the drawer. I will not ask any questions other than ‘how do I get out of here?’

Heading towards the window, I pass by the staircase that leads up to the second floor, which is also dark. I’ll leave that as a very last resort, as in I will jump from the second floor if it means I can escape. Past the staircase is the entrance to the kitchen. Even from the hallway, I can smell the rotting food and decay, causing my stomach to turn slightly. I enter it rather quickly, passing by a small table before reaching the actual kitchen.

Ugh, the smell is much stronger in here, probably due to the uneaten food that’s been left on two plates sitting on the kitchen table. Turning from the sight and smell, I see a small microwave on the counter and open it, immediately turning in discuss upon seeing a dead crow inside.

What was that?

Were those footsteps?

I stand still, listening, but the noise is gone. However my sense of preservation is not and is only heightened. I’m fairly sure that I’m not alone, which means I needs to go. Looking around the kitchen, I walk around the dining table towards a large cabinet; it’s empty and one of its glass doors is just hanging from its hinges. But underneath it are a set of drawers and I eagerly open both and once again, find nothing.

My frustration is building, but not as much as my fear. I’m really getting the sense that there’s someone else and it scares me to the core. There’s another entrance out of the kitchen, where a dresser currently stands. Walking quickly, I stand in front of the doors, but find that they are chained up. Why would anyone put a chain on a dresser? Because they don’t want someone to find out what’s inside! Duh! Which means, brain, there is something awesome in this dresser and I hope that awesome something is a clue on how to get out of here.

Turning around, I see I’m in another hallway and at the end is another door. At some point, one of these doors is my way out and that’s what I’m looking for. Striding forward, I open the door and walk in to…I don’t even know. It’s another short hallway and another door in sight, possibly the front door, but that’s not what I’m registering. It’s the bodies.

They’re large and…ripped open. Their skins lay on top of bones, barely actually because I can see the bones; their ribcages. They were…large…animals, maybe? Cows? Oh god, pigs? Geez, I really hope not. I’m really hoping I didn’t know these guys. I want to stop staring, but I can’t, but that’s when my eyes pick up something that’s protruding out of one of the bodies.

It’s red…no, the handles, two handles are red. Steeling my courage, I grab the object and pull it from the corpse. Bolt cutters? Bolt cutters! That’s good! I can cut those chains off the dresser and hopefully find the answer to leaving here.

Baby tap dancing Jesus! Something just fell from the ceiling!

Bending slightly, I see it’s just a doll. Right. Dolls fall from ceilings all the time. Okay. Oh, wait. My brain’s telling me something. “Hey dummy! Use the bolt cutters to break off the knob of that door. Or break a window!”

All good suggestions, brain, except one thing. I’m assuming you can also hear the strange sounds in the house, the ones that don’t belong to us and suggest that someone else is here? I propose we do not alert them to our presence.

Good point.

But my brain also had a point. The bolt cutters could come in handy. Walking towards the door, I tried the knob. Locked. Of course. Maybe I could use the bolt cutters and…no. No, these bolt cutters are for the chains on that dresser and when opened, I will find said key to this door and I will escape into the hopefully morning or afternoon air, in which I will then get the H-E-double hockey out of dodge!

With an even more stronger purpose of getting out of here, I retrace my steps back to the dresser with the chains on it and, using my trusty bolt cutters, snip the chains in half. Freedom, here I come! I open those dresser doors and…

No key.

Nothing much, actually. Just this video tape. Why would anyone hide a video tape in a dresser? Wait a tick…this has got to be a clue. I woke up in a room with a VCR, but no tape and now, I have found a tape. So there must be something important on this tape! This tape could be exactly what I’ve looking for, but that means I have to make my way back through the kitchen, down the hall, and back to the room I awoke in.

Not ideal, but this tape could hold answers. Maybe it’ll explain why I’m here and why I woke up in that room. Even better, maybe it’ll tell me how to get out of here. Trepidatious but resolved, I make my way back through the kitchen, down the hall past the staircase, and into my little previous room. But things are different now. The once silent TV is now on full blast, the sounds of static frightening me.

When I was last in here, that TV had no sound or was at very least on mute and now it’s blaring at its top volume. I’ve got no time to ponder that. Shaking off the fear, I march straight to the TV and pop the tape in and wait.

Okay, so now that I've had a chance to read this... Promising start. The frog captive on the kitchen floor... How did he get himself freed from the ropes binding his wrists down to get the butcher's knife for the second person? And what answers lie on that video tape that was found in the chained dresser drawer? Hopefully it won't summon a cute corpsely girl from her well-dwelling. Then again, some of the things on that video tape are surpassed in trippiness by some of the stuff the Muppets have done in the past sixty years. Thanks for posting, I'm intrigued and awaiting the next installment.

Okay, so now that I've had a chance to read this... Promising start. The frog captive on the kitchen floor... How did he get himself freed from the ropes binding his wrists down to get the butcher's knife for the second person?

Click to expand...

Well...he can move his hands. His wrists are tied together, but he can still move the fingers, you know.

Hopefully it won't summon a cute corpsely girl from her well-dwelling. Then again, some of the things on that video tape are surpassed in trippiness by some of the stuff the Muppets have done in the past sixty years. Thanks for posting, I'm intrigued and awaiting the next installment.

Click to expand...

I'll post the actual demo walkthrough at the end. I thought about doing so at the beginning, but that would have given some stuff away.

Okay, I wasn't gonna ask about the trippyness but now I am. What strange and crazy things have the Mupps done that surpasses the strangeness of a haunted house? I mean, yeah, having Alice Copper try to get you to sign away your soul or Vampire!Kermit trying to turn Vincent Price into one were weird, but not scary.

Then again, I didn't actually all of the Muppet Show until I was an adult, so past the age of terror, I guess.

Oh hey. I has a bone to pick with this site. So, my title - the Muppet Horror Story was supposed to be little and the House of Horrors big. When I first did it, it was, but now it's all normal like. And my mysterious message was supposed to be in red, but not. Why has font options if the font options no worky!?

Posted by the Gina who mistresses webs: "Why have the fonts no workie?" Me no know, ask Mr. Robot man. I'm not a robot, I'm a cyborg! Is that supposed to be my line? *Shrugs.

Honestly not sure, then again, I've never really gotten the hang of embedding colored fonts here.

Yeah, once you're adult age, trippy stuff goes from horror to thinking it must be some acid-induced delusions.
You'd be surprised at the amount of trippy/scary stuff the Mups has been up to by going through some pages of the "What Sketches Scared You?" thread, though that's just the SST side of Hensondom like the red-hot I-beam sketch. Meh, peeps keep trying to apply hidden subversive meaning to everything, kind of like some comments in the thread about the recent remake of "I Don't Want To Live On The Moon".

Happy Saturday, Mupps! Let's get your weekend started with a little horror, yeah? In case you need an refresher -

Our story opens with a video of Kermit the Frog coming to in a strange place, on a blood soaked floor. Realizing he's not alone, he goes to try and rescue his companion, however their bonds don't seem to be loosening.

In the present, we find ourselves in another strange room, connected to an even stranger house. We're locked in, but are able to find a VHS tape. Will that tell us what we need to know?

Let's find out!

October 15th, 2016 9:52PM

Group 12

Redison Farmhouse

VRT356 g-12

“ABANDONED FARMHOUSE”

00 : 00 : 02 : 13​

The video began at the five minute and two second mark, showing a group of Muppets heading up towards the porch of an old abandoned farmhouse. It was night, possibly near midnight, which made it even odder why people would be out at that late hour.

“Boo!”

Miss Piggy, star and host of Up Late with Miss Piggy, chuckled at the response coming from Fozzie Bear, her announcer and current target of terror. The comic took a step back when the diva had suddenly popped up in his line of sight, startling him. It was October and everyone was going all out to get into the mood for Halloween and as much as Fozzie loved getting free candy, he didn’t enjoy being scared.

Worst of all, every year, Piggy and Electric Mayhem bassist Floyd Pepper tried to out scare each other, by pulling pranks or issuing challenges. This was one of Floyd’s challenges – sending Piggy out to some abandoned farmhouse for the night. And of course, the diva never backed down from a challenge, especially from Floyd, so she was all in. All in and ready to bring four others with her.

Enlisting the help of Rowlf the Dog and Gonzo the Great, the three would have been all set to head out if their producer Kermit the Frog hadn’t heard about this. Given that he and Piggy had restarted their relationship, the frog seemed to be even more protective than normal or maybe Fozzie hadn’t noticed, what with the two arguing just as much as they were making eyes at each other.

Needless to say, Kermit wasn’t about to let his girlfriend head out to a supposedly haunted house without him and then suddenly, they had all turned to look at him and the bear was reluctant to say no. When was the last time the five of them had done anything together? Yes, most of the Up Late cast and crew hung out at the tavern Rowlf owned, but it wasn’t the same as working on set together and heading out for a drink together.

The farmhouse was in the middle of nowhere, literally way past any forms of civilization and located in a wooded area that the comic didn’t knew existed in California. Even from the outside and in the dark, the group could see the farmhouse had seen better days, maybe even better years. There was a sturdy seat swing in the yard, its wood starting to rot, while its bench cushion was faded and frayed from years of neglect. The wooden porch and railing were coming apart at the seams and Fozzie was convinced the house had maybe another few months or a year before it would just collapse.

So caught up in looking around, the bear was nearly left behind as the others had headed to the front door without him.

“We have to stay for a few hours then?” Gonzo was asking.

“Floyd said Moi could leave at dawn,” Piggy replied. “Provided Moi lasts the night. Hence why I brought you yahoos.”

“Your sweet words only make us want to spend more time in your presence,” Kermit quipped, though it was softened with a smile to his girlfriend.

“Good idea about the headlights,” Gonzo said, tapping on the one around his head. “Hands-free.”

“And helpful,” the diva said, slapping his hand away. “Especially when there are cameras in each of them.”

“There’s a camera in our headlight?” Fozzie asked, confused.

“Do vous honestly think Moi is going through this without some proof?” Piggy huffed. “Please. We wouldn’t hear the end of it if we just said we stayed and left. He’d want proof. So…we’re gonna give it to him and if any of us sees anything…capture haunting.” Turning to her producer, she said, “Kermie, I think we should do an episode here.”

“I think you’re out of your mind.”

“Well, we’re not gonna record anything if we don’t get inside.” Gonzo tried the door, turning the doorknob and pushing against it. “No deposit, no return,” he said, rubbing his shoulder.

“Let me,” Rowlf said, throwing his shoulder against the door and getting the same results. Throwing a look to Piggy, he asked, “Hey karate kid, care to try your luck?”

Rolling her eyes, the diva took a stance back before kicking the door in, causing it to open wide and slam against the wall behind it.

“Takin’ care of business,” the pianist chuckled.

“Every day.”

The group was looking down a dark and dank hallway, the smell of rot and decay heavy in the air. Piggy made to take her first steps inside, when a hand stopped her. “Someone does know where we are, right?” Kermit asked, worriedly.

“Of course,” she said. “Floyd, for one, and Scooter. He’s the one monitoring all the camera stuff. And Moi did promise to send him a text when we left, regardless if it’s sun up or not.”

“That’s good to know,” Fozzie muttered. “I’d hate to be out here without anyone knowing where we were.”

“Shall we?” asked Gonzo, squeezing past Kermit and Piggy, who were just loitering in the doorway. Stumbling forward, the head writer righted himself against the nearby wall before pulling back in disgust. “Ugh. Housekeeping hasn’t been by in while.”

“Or ever,” Kermit muttered, looking around.

With Gonzo leading the group, the quintet headed down the dark and narrow hallway, noting the disarray of the interior as they did. The wallpaper had nearly peeled off in some parts, showing the wooden structure underneath and even that was wearing away. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if a colony of termites were bringing the house down around them. Only the lights from their head lamps illuminated the hallways and rooms, no lighting was available; the electricity long shut off before they arrived. The group made their way to the entrance of the kitchen and immediately halted, as the smell of rotting food assaulted their senses.

“So nice of Pepper to give us a heads up,” growled Rowlf, waving a hand in front of his face as he took a few steps into the kitchen. “I’m a dog and even I won’t stand for this.”

“I hope you had plans for us to stay upstairs,” Gonzo joked, as they looked around. “Last thing we want to is disturb this fine décor.”

“Lay off,” Piggy said, gazing around. “You’re talking about the home of a missing couple.”

“And pray tell,” Kermit began. “How do you know this?”

The diva huffed and rolled her eyes. “Because Moi has and uses le Internet,” she said. “It was actually a big case a few years ago. Margo and Horace Redison, both in their late sixties, bought and lived in this farmhouse since the early 1970s. Raised a family here, nice, lovely couple from all reports. And then one day, poof. They disappeared.”

“Just right out of here?” asked Rowlf.

“Who knows?” the diva shrugged. “One day they were here and the next…”

“There was that report about their son.”

“What’s that now?” asked the frog.

“Don’t listen to Gonzo,” Piggy replied. “Reports of a ‘troubled son’ have never been confirmed and that insinuates that the Redisons’ had four sons and not the three.”

“That they claim,” the writer insisted. “C’mon. We live in Hollywood, for pete’s sakes. Stories like this come out like every five years, if we’re lucky.”

“The two of you spend way too much time watching Investigative Discovery,” Kermit muttered, shaking his head at both. It was no secret that both Piggy and Gonzo seemed to have unhealthy appetites for the macabre at times, what with the weirdo’s love of death defying stunts and the diva’s weird obsession with murder and horror.

“I’ll have you know the bear and I watched ID all last weekend,” Gonzo countered. “And there’s nothing wrong with him. Huh, Fozzie?”

The group waited for an acknowledgement that never came.

“Fozzie?”

Where as five Muppets had entered the kitchen, there were only four now. The others only had their backs turned for a moment and there was no way the comic could’ve gone by without them noticing.

“Foz?” Rowlf called.

“Are you serious?” Piggy asked, irritation clear in her voice. “For all his whining and crying on the way up here, we turn around for one second and he goes off by himself?”

The four ventured into another hallway, leading out of the kitchen from the opposite side. There was a stairway to their right, with the hallway continuing past. “We’ll check upstairs,” Kermit said, nodding to the staircase. Pointing past it, he continued with, “You guys check down there. There’s no way he could’ve gotten far.”

Rowlf and Gonzo nodded their understanding. As they headed up, Piggy leaned over the railing to address the two once more. “If you find him, holler.”

“I’m liable to holler even if I don’t find him,” Gonzo groused, as he and the dog pianist continued down the hall. The hallway went further down, ending at a wooden brown door; dog and weirdo passed by an opened storage area, looking inside but only finding broken shelving and scattered items.

A little ways down, next door to be exact, was what they could consider a sitting room. They opened the door slightly, wondering if Fozzie was inside. “Fozzie?” Gonzo asked, poking a head between the door and doorjamb. Opening the door wider, he and Rowlf stepped inside.

Like the rest of the house, the room looked lived in at one point, possibly a popular place where the occupants retired after dinner. There were two leather bound chairs, around a small coffee table, with an upright piano sitting behind them to the right, while to the left, there was an old fireplace that hadn’t been used in years. In the right back corner, was a TV attached to a VCR; both were off and looked as though they had stopped working a long time ago.

“Doesn’t look like anyone’s been in here for years,” Rowlf whispered.

“True that,” the head writer whispered back. “Think we should knock wood? Discover if there’s a secret passage?”

“Knowing Fozzie, he probably stumbled on one.”

“Right?”

The two began to search around the room, knocking on the walls and seeing if anything would pop open. So far, they weren’t finding anything, at not until Gonzo managed to knock a book off the fireplace mantel. Bending to pick it up, he noticed a lever that was hanging from the underside of the fireplace. “Hello, hello,” he said, kneeling down. Reaching over, he pulled it.

To his upper right, he saw the lower panel of wall suddenly shift back, revealing the secret passage they had been joking about finding. “Nice going, Zo,” the pianist nodded, walking over to the revealed area. “After you.”

“Age before beauty, baby.”

The dog smirked before crouching down and crawling through the hidden passage. Rowlf stood up and looked around; before him was an open hole in the floor, as though the wooden planks had just broken away. There did seem to be a wooden ladder that disappeared into the hole, stacked against the side of the cavern allowing someone to go down or hopefully come back up.

“You think Fozzie went down there?” questioned Gonzo.

“Only way to find out,” Rowlf said, turning to look at him. The two stared at each other until Gonzo sighed, unhappily and trudged towards the ladder.

“He’d better be down here,” he grumbled.

Turning, Gonzo took the careful flight down the ladder, feeling its sturdiness as he climbed. It seemed even darker as he descended, the light from his head lamp the only thing casting anything visible around him. Upon reaching the bottom, the weirdo could see he was in a small basement or maybe a hidden room, seeing how it only seemed to be accessed from the secret passage above.

Looking up, Gonzo could barely see Rowlf from where he was, figuring he had climbed down at least 10 to 12 feet below the house. Looking to his left, the writer could see stone masontry walls and dirt on the ground.

“You alright?” the dog called down.

“Yeah,” Gonzo shouted. “You’re gonna owe for this. It’s creepy as all get out down here.”

Turning around fully, Gonzo began looking around, taking in the walls, the weird sheet covered chair, the comic bear standing in a corner…

Topside, Rowlf was trying to figure out what the blue weirdo meant. Blair Witch like? What, the bear was imitating the movie or the actual ‘ghost’? And how the heck did the bear get down there in the first place? Any more questions were silenced when the pianist heard Gonzo scream.

“Gonzo!?” he cried, looking down into the cavern. He didn’t see any light coming from the weirdo, only pitch blackness. “Gonzo!” Rowlf took one step towards the ladder, but rethought his position. Yes, he should go down there and make sure his friend was okay; on the other hand, going down there could mean all of three of them would be down there with who knew what.

That wasn’t smart. The better idea was to go get Kermit and Piggy, tell them what happened, and obviously call the police. “Gonzo, hang on!” he called. “I’m gonna get the frog and pig. I’ll be right back!”

Turning to leave, the dog was only able to let out a startled gasp before he too went silent.

[hr]

Coming from downstairs, Piggy halted on the steps halfway down, causing Kermit to bump into her. “Did you hear that?” she asked. It was no secret that the diva probably had better hearing than Rowlf did, beating out even their much younger friends and family, so when she heard something, there was no reason to bother questioning it.

The fact that she had heard something seemed more bad omen than good to Kermit, for some reason. Their search upstairs for their missing comic had been a bust – it was more like a small attic than actual upstairs anything, with three creepy looking mannequins standing near the entrance way. The one thing that the frog had noticed or rather, noticed was missing, was an actual telephone. Granted, more and more people used cell or smartphones these days, but if Piggy’s story of a missing couple were true, he imagined they would’ve had at least one or two touchtone or rotary phones in the house.

That probably made him even more nervous about being here.

They all had phones and Piggy had said Scooter should be able to see anything they were recording, but it wasn’t unheard of for technology to fail, especially when out in the middle of nowhere like they were.

“Where was it, baby?” he whispered.

“Down the hall,” she replied, hurrying down the stairs and heading the way Rowlf and Gonzo had. Reaching the very same door the others had, Piggy slowly opened the door. To both of their surprises, the room was empty. Expecting to find Rowlf and Gonzo inside, even sitting in the leather chairs around the table, pig and frog found the room virtually empty. “Where are they?”

Stepping back into the hall, Kermit went to the left, where a wooden brown door stood and tried the knob. It was obviously locked, signaling that – unless the two were locked inside – no one had been down this way. Turning back, he saw Piggy emerging into the hallway as well. “Nothing?” she asked.

“But what about…?” the diva asked, rushing to catch up with him. She followed him back through the kitchen and towards the door they had entered into.

“We’re going to get in the car, check to make sure our phones are working, and then we’re going to call the police.” Turning the knob on the door, Kermit struggled with getting it open. That…didn’t make sense. Piggy kicked in the door, meaning the door should have been very easy to open. But now, it felt like the door was locked.

Kermit tried a few more times, but the door wasn’t cooperating. “It’s not budging,” he said.

Piggy, who enjoyed scary things as much as the next guy, was not enjoying this. What should have been a routine, run of the mill, ghost chasing adventure had now turned into the stuff of nightmares. Fozzie going missing she could understand; well, no, actually, it didn’t make sense as the bear would have never gone off in a strange and dark building, especially if it was supposedly haunted.

But his disappearance Piggy had somewhat counted on. She had not, however, counted on Rowlf and Gonzo vanishing into thin air. That was definitely not like them and it really worried her. Worried her so much that she didn’t even wait to get outside before she was pulling out her smartphone. And of course there would be a problem, because this was Muppet luck coming into play.

“That’s the thing,” she said, holding down the power button, but not getting any response. “I charged it while we were in the car and it was completely full when we got out.” Not chalking that up to anything weird, Piggy pulled out the frog’s own smartphone, which he had turned over to put in her pocket. His was doing the same thing, which was equally weird, seeing as Kermit hardly ever used his phone, meaning it always seemed to have a full battery life.

“Alright,” he sighed. “Don’t panic. There’s gotta be another way out of here.” Looking ahead, the frog immediately saw what he was looking for. At the other end of the hall was another door. He wasn’t sure of its condition, but it wasn’t going to stop the two of them from leaving. Turning back to Piggy, he said, “There’s a door at the other of the hallway. All we have to do…”

The two listened and while Kermit was sure he wouldn’t hear anything, he did. Footsteps and heavy ones at that. “There’s someone in here with us,” the diva whispered.

“Yeah,” he whispered, back. “Those three other guys we came in here with.”

Just as Piggy was shaking her head – of course, there were three other people in here with them, but she was trying to tell him that there was another person in here with them – they both heard another sound, slightly closer than perhaps the footsteps. “What was that?” the frog asked, gulping as he did.

Instead of matching his fear with her own, Piggy actually relaxed, adding an annoyed huff along with it. “It was a chuckle,” she said, turning to look down the hall, though her eyes were trained on the kitchen entrance. “Those jerks. They’ve been playing us this whole time!”

Kermit growled softly. “It would serve them right if we just took off without them,” he said.

“Let’s go get those idiots and then we’re out of here.”

Confident that their three ‘lost’ friends had now just conspired to scare them senseless, the royal couple began to stride forward towards the kitchen. This was enough for one night; yes, Piggy would lose her bet to Floyd – unless the others managed to convince her to stay around – but better to be out $50 buck than out of one’s nine lives. And oh, if they were only cats to have nine lives to spare.

Piggy’s comment was halted by…something. All that was seen was her camera suddenly flying backwards, Kermit’s own horrified screams, and what looked to be a pair of legs that didn’t belong to any of the Muppets there.

Again, good job setting the scene for potential scares... But it's only the beginning and Ima gonna need more to render a judgment. It's all in the details, which this is definitely delivering... Taking care of business, in every way. Creaking front door that self-locks after the victims are all inside. Creepy sitting room with secret underground accessible basement lair. Macabre mannequins up in the attic. And a layer of rot or decay that's affected the entire environment. And yet, I feel there's more of a story to tell here. Good thing this fic's in progress, so I'll wait for the next installment.

And yes, I'm in a perfectly spooky mood what with watching Halloween-themed programming on FN now: Halloween Baking Championships 2016 and Halloween Wars 2016 season premieres plus the special Kids Halloween bake-off single episode. Although the kiddies need to be educated in monsterdom. One kid got a cyclops eye and monster horn so he makes a mutant purple hippo. Apparently never heard of the One-Eyed- One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater. And another girl got wings and orange fur so she made a bat-dog that was kinda generic... When she could have used them to make a manticore or winged man-tiger scorpion monster instead. So this explains my inner judge voicing its opinions above, good stuff, and I await the next installment of this fic.

*Leaves a piece of the vampire bat chocolate cake made for 's bat-day last night.

Again, good job setting the scene for potential scares... But it's only the beginning and Ima gonna need more to render a judgment. It's all in the details, which this is definitely delivering... Taking care of business, in every way. Creaking front door that self-locks after the victims are all inside. Creepy sitting room with secret underground accessible basement lair. Macabre mannequins up in the attic. And a layer of rot or decay that's affected the entire environment. And yet, I feel there's more of a story to tell here. Good thing this fic's in progress, so I'll wait for the next installment.

Click to expand...

Glad you're enjoying it!

Yes, there's two more sections left - we'll see how this video tape will help us escape our room (can you guess?) and of course, do we escape? Do we get to the outside world?

And yes, I'm in a perfectly spooky mood what with watching Halloween-themed programming on FN now: Halloween Baking Championships 2016 and Halloween Wars 2016 season premieres plus the special Kids Halloween bake-off single episode.

*Leaves a piece of the vampire bat chocolate cake made for 's bat-day last night.

Click to expand...

It's very rare, I've noticed, to actually find anything scary related on cable these days, especially during Halloween. It's one of the reasons I started doing my own Halloween theme by watching scary movies; it's also a good excuse to watch those I've never seen before.

Is there really a Halloween Baking Championship? Cause...that sounds awesome.

Yes, there really is a Halloween Baking Championship series airing on Food Network. Heck, they aired the first episode from last year's competition an hour and half ago at 7 PM. This year's competition airs on Mondays at 9 PM with repeats Saturdays at 1 PM. What I lurve even more is the annual Halloween Wars though, with the teams of pumpkin carver plus cake decorator and sugar artists making creative sculpts/displays. And of corpse there are the classic movies that air throughout the last two weeks of October over on Freeform, I posted this year's schedule in a thread in General Discussions.

*Goes to see if has some pumpkin waffles with Trick-Oreo-Treat ice cream.

UGH! So firstly, I was actually in the midst of posting this when Windows 10 did an update, so my awesome apology about not posting this sooner was lost. And believe me, it was an awesome apology.

Anyway, I guess I'll just get to the summary (which was also equally awesome): Our story started with a grimy video of Kermit the Frog waking up on a blood soaked floor, with another person. Flash forward to us having woken up in a dimly dark room. After exploring the surroundings, we learn we are in a locked and apparently abandoned house, with no way to escape.

Finding some bolt cutters, we're able to open up a locked cabinet, which hides a video tape. Quickly hurrying back to the previous room with a VCR, we watch. In the video, our Founding Five stand outside an abandoned farm house, where the residents are said to have disappeared mysteriously. In the midst of investigation, Fozzie Bear himself disappears. Splitting up sees Rowlf the Dog and the Great Gonzo stumbling on to something and someone, while Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy get the feeling this is all a big joke.

At least until they also run into something...sinister.

!!!SPOILERS!!! ​

If you're planning on playing Resident Evil 7, I'm possibly about to spoil BOTH endings for you, even though I only played one. The game came out in the summer, so they could possibly be changes or updates, however

YOU. HAVE. BEEN. WARNED!

!!!END SPOILERS!!!​

And now, (if you'e still here) for the second time tonight, we now return you to our regularly scheduled program:

The video ended, leaving me in a stunned and terrified silence.

Obviously, something had happened earlier and now, I was missing four members of the party I had been a part of. This wasn’t good, this wasn’t good at all. Turning around, my eyes focused on the fireplace and I hurried over to it, falling on my knees as I did. Thrusting my arm inside, I found the secret lever – the same one Gonzo had found on the video tape – and pulled, hearing the small squeak of the hidden panel opening slightly from the wall.

I didn’t want to go inside, especially knowing that three people had gone before me and had disappeared, but if I wanted to get out, there could be something there that would help. Crawling as fast as I could, I climbed through the panel, clearing the doorway and standing. The secret passage was as dark as it had been from the video, with only my light punctuating the darkness with a small burst of light. The table stood in front of me and there, I found the missing fuse.

At any other time, perhaps before I had viewed the video tape, I may have stumbled upon this secret and then I could’ve grabbed the fuse, replaced it, and figured out where that path would’ve lead me. However, I have seen the video and it has scared me more than waking up in a strange room, in a strange house, and not knowing if I’m the only one here.

Turning my head this way and that, I use the headlight to examine my surroundings. There! On the floor!

Hurrying over, I bend over and pick up a key. The key to freedom, I hope. Glancing up, I notice that the wooden ladder that had lowered to the pit below was no longer there. That probably meant something, but at the moment, I didn’t care. Hopefully it meant whatever was down there meant it couldn’t come up here.

Key in hand, I quickly made my escape out the way I came.

Back in the room, the TV had once again gone back to static and seemed to be even louder than before. That was just what I needed – being called out by the loudness of static. Hurrying over, I quickly turned the TV off, silencing the noise and putting the room back into semi-darkness. That’s when I noticed the note. It was the same note I had first noticed upon waking in this room, but there were two things wrong. Very wrong.

First, I had left the note on the coffee table in the middle of the room, so how did it manage to show up on the stand where the TV and VCR stood? Secondly, as I picked it up, I immediately noticed that the note had changed.

I will slay YOU all​

The word ‘them’ had been crossed out and was replaced with the word ‘YOU’ in capital letters. Even more horrifying, unlike the rest of the note which had been written in black ink, the word ‘you’ was written in red ink. Or at least I hope it was red ink. Looking at it closely, I could tell it wasn’t. It wasn’t ink at all.

Right.

Time to go.

Turning around, I felt my heart jump into my throat and I was hard pressed to swallow a scream. When I came in, the door was closed behind me and now, it was wide open. That was chilling enough, but what scared me was the figure that passed by the open doorway, heading towards the kitchen and my ultimate escape path. Inwardly, I swore. I never swear and right now, my brain was cursing like a sailor on shore leave.

There was someone in the house with me.

I knew that now.

My heart beat wildly in my chest and it took a few minutes before I finally felt my body move with the insistent directions from my brain. Half running to the door way, I cautiously peak around, looking left and then right, but I don’t see the figure. Was it my imagination? Surely he had seen my headlamp illuminating the darkened room? Did it really matter?

No, it did not.

Taking a chance, I darted through the doorway and down the hall towards the kitchen, stumbling through after running into the small table there. Oh snap! Well, snap wasn’t the word of choice, but that’s what I said while my brain supplied another word. I was on my hands and knees, which meant I couldn’t possibly be making the indecent slow footsteps I could hear behind me.

Getting to my feet, I took off again, going through the other entryway. I actually managed to skid across the floor and into the wall, but I didn’t care. My arm would be bruised, but at least I would make it out alive. My momentum returned and I fled down the passage to the red door that started this nightmare. I took the key from my pocket, putting it into the lock, and turned it.

Oh my god.

Oh my god, I was free!

I opened the door, letting in the first rays of sunlight this place had probably seen in a decade. I stumble out onto the porch, grateful and thankful and finally free. I can’t believe I actually did it. I walk forward, holding on to the wooden railing, before I take my first step off the porch steps.

A hand on my shoulder pulls me, turning me round as it does.It’s a man, about a foot and half taller than myself, and dressed in overalls. Well, bloody overalls. In fact, he’s covered head to toe in blood, even the grey beard covering his face is doused in blood, making him look more like a ginger than an elderly gentleman. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asks, gruffly.

I only manage a split-second thought before his fist comes right at me.

Whose blood is he covered in?

[hr]

Muppets comic and announcer of Up Late with Miss Piggy Fozzie Bear ripped off the virtual reality headset from his head and sat still for a few moments. His heart was racing and he was pretty sure he had been screaming earlier, but what did you expect? That was just creepy!

“You okay?”

The comic looked to his left, seeing the game attendant at his side with a worried look on her face. Nodding, Fozzie quickly handed over the VR device and stood, rather shakily, to his feet. “That…” he began, taking a few breaths to steady himself. “Is way scarier than it should be. Why do people do this?”

“For the thrill,” the attendant, whose name was Alice, replied. “It’s way scarier when you’re in the VR, definitely. I have a friend who loves this series and even she got freaked out using the headset.”

Fozzie nodded his thanks before leaving the enclosure.

Once outside, the comic spotted the rest of his group sitting on the benches across from him. He, Kermit, Piggy, Rowlf, and Gonzo had all gone to Monkey Brothers, a family friendly restaurant that also doubled as a game arcade, complete with pinball games, skeeball, pool tables, air hockey, and actual arcade machines. For the Halloween season, Monkey Bros had brought in the newest VR horror demo, House of Horrors, a game from the creators of the popular survival horror series Zombie Rampage and Village of the ******.

The actual reason they were at Monkey Bros was because of a request from Jimmy Frog, Kermit’s brother. Jimmy’s son Robin had wanted to come and visit, the thought being he’d be able to stay for Thanksgiving; Robin of course had wanted to try the new House of Horrors game, which would be released while he was there. Even if the young frog was fourteen, that didn’t mean he could be allowed into every or anything that was now age appropriate.

And so, like the favorite aunt and uncle they were, Kermit and Piggy decided they would check this new game out.

The new series would be a first for the company, as it would utilize the newest trend of virtual reality headgear. VR headsets would allow players to completely and almost totally immerse themselves in their game; instead of just sitting and watching the action, they would be a part of the action.

The VR game and booth were another innovation from both the game company and the establishment. It was easy to just put oneself into the character of a game, it was completely different when you could actually be a character within the game. Players went through a scan that would place their likeness within the game and then answered a short survey. The survey basically helped choose a scenario for the game – a bet or a dare from a friend to spend the night, a reality TV crew sent to investigate, or a couple or friends looking for help and directions.

They picked the first option because of course Floyd Pepper would dare Piggy to spend the night in a haunted house and in they went.

The storyline was the same – the first person POV always woke up with one of their friends in the kitchen, discovering that they seemed to be the only two. They would then struggle to release themselves, finding it impossible to get rid of the shackles or rope around their wrists. The game would then start with the player waking up in the den, trying to figure out what to do in order to escape.

There were a few unique features of the game – firstly, the characters were random, so the beginning was always different, even if people of the same group were involved. There was also the POV – it changed from the beginning to the actual play, meaning that Fozzie may not have been the actual person in the kitchen with Kermit at the start or it wasn’t him during the actual play.

Another was the fact that there were seemingly two different endings.

“Well?” asked Gonzo, as they saw the comic come towards.

“He got me on the porch,” he sighed. “Right as I was about to go down the steps.”

“That settles it then,” Rowlf replied, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wallet. Fozzie noticed that Gonzo did the same and both then turned over five dollars each to the outstretched gloved hand of Piggy. “Her royal highness got the furthest.”

“How much further?”

“Moi made it to the yard,” came the reply. “By that horrid looking porch swing.”

“Come on,” Kermit said, standing and gesturing for the others. “Let’s head out before we start discussing this. Last thing we want is to ruin it for everyone else.”

The group made their way out, ignoring both Fozzie and Gonzo’s whines about not being able to spend their tickets. Once outside however, or rather, once they were seated in Kermit’s car, discussion about the game continued. “So how did I get the outside ending, but Rowlfie and Kermit got the attic ending?”

“They found the secret passage before the video tape, right?” Gonzo added.

“That has to be it,” Piggy supplied. “Moi didn’t find that fuse when I opened the secret passage, but Kermit found it but didn’t find the key until after he had the video tape.”

“Not to mention he’ll be a social pariah if he doesn’t and all his friends do,” the diva added.

“Yeah, well, if all his friends jumped off a bridge, do you think I’d let him do the same?”

“Lay off,” Gonzo said. “He’s a teenager and if you’re that worried, we’ll totally come back. I want to find this secret attic you stumbled on and I’ve got 900 points sitting in my wallet as we speak. Another 300 and that remote drone is mine.”

“Vous are not getting a drone.”

“Yes I am and you can’t stop me.”

“Moi doesn’t have to stop you,” Piggy retorted. “Because Moi knows Camilla will never let you have one.”

“That’s what you think.”

“That’s what I know.”

“I think as Robbie isn’t doing this,” Rowlf chuckled, gesturing between Piggy in the passenger side and Gonzo sitting next to him in the back. “I don’t see the problem in letting him play.”

The frog sighed, more in response to the childish argument that played out between his girlfriend and head writer, but he knew Rowlf had a point. His nephew was a teenager, only a few months from turning fifteen in fact, and it wasn’t really his job to coddle him anymore. But he did take watching Robin as a special type of guidance, just as he knew Piggy did, and while they may let him go play with his friends, he was pretty sure they would tag along.

And maybe, just maybe, his fears weren’t for his nephew, but for him. He wasn’t really a horror person, but he wasn’t about to admit that the game had creeped him out. A lot. A sentiment apparently shared by the others, as Gonzo made the suggestion of staying a bit at his house. Monkey Brothers was in his general area, so he was the first to be dropped off, but it was clear he didn’t want to just say goodnight.

“Just one drink,” he insisted. “Besides, I got this yummy cake that really needs to be eaten.”

That got Fozzie of course and the prospect of having a Pepe and Rizzo free conversation was appealing. So they totally decided to go in for a little bit. And when a couple of hours went by, it was certainly not unheard of for the group to end up just staying the night at one of their residences. It just made sense – it was late, everyone was tired and full of cake and they may have had a beer or three and they certainly were not going to drive unless they were sober.

It absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that none of them wanted to walk into empty, dark homes that were filled with creaks, shadows, and who knew what else.

And in case anyone would like to watch the playthrough, here you go. This has both endings I believe, though some things are different (this guy did not encounter the ghost or the guys going by the doorway)

Hmm, so this was a VR demo the gang was playing through at some pizza/arcade game-type place. For a moment I thought the guy in the bloody overalls was and the whole thing was some elaborate rousse to win the bet between government-paranoid hipster and leading lady diva.
Monkey Brothers huh. Wonder if they'll still curr the Muppets' patronage once PizzeRizzo opens up next month. Thanks for the fic Gina, have a spooky Halloween.